By Mary Fairchild Ginni Callahan, Punta Santa Rosalillita, BCS. Although it is possible to ride storm surf, tidal bores, and swell, what provides us with ‘the finest waves to ride’ is swell arriving on a suitable beach. Nigel Foster (1) During the first week of April, I was fortunate to be[Read more]

By Mary Fairchild IMAMI Mosque, Streamwood, Illinois. The Islamic tradition of taqiyya stretches back to the sixth-century AD when, following disputes over succession after the Prophet Mohammed’s death, the minority Shiites developed taqiyya, or “holy deception”, to conceal their “true” beliefs from the Sunni majority and to maintain operational security[Read more]

By Mary Fairchild(updated 12/02/2015) This was my favorite play area from my 2011 guided Coastal Maine trip (2011 report). The sea kayaking community needs, perhaps most of all, to guard against any shift from safety to one of recognition and getting paid. Known as “Ocean Camp Maine,” my second guided trip[Read more]

By Mary Fairchild (updated 11/2010) Anza-Borrego Desert The Great Basin stretches from southern Idaho to Southern California which includes all, or portions, of Oregon, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Its southwestern parts are now known as the Mojave and Colorado Deserts of Southern California. In this large, generally dry, mountain-studded region of the West[Read more]

By Mary Fairchild (updated 11/2015) In all North America, the Mazon Creek flora has the largest number of species and greatest taxonomic diversity of any Moscovian Pennsylvanian period assemblage. More than 200 species have been documented, of which the majority are fern and seed fern foliage. Jack Wittry Jack Wittry has[Read more]

By Mary Fairchild (updated 11/15) Many Native-Americans do not believe that archaeologists are capable of interpreting and preserving their past. Last spring, Smithsonian’s curator Douglas Owsley publicly told the tribes that the Kennewick Man was not Native American, but this year, DNA analysis in Denmark appears to be proving Owsley’s research team was wrong. Both Indians and Anthropologists[Read more]